Pen or pencil attachment.



No. 717,697. PATENTED JAN. 6, 1903.

W. 0. MURPHY. PEN OB. PENCIL ATTACHMENT.

. APPLIOATION FILED FEB. 4, 1902.

,1 H0 MODEL.

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UNITED STATES ATENT FFICE.

WILLIAM o. MURPHY, or HAVANA, NORTH DAKOTA.

PEN OR PENClL ATTACHMENT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 717,597, dated January 6, 1903.

Application filed February 4, 1902. Serial No. 92,543. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM G. MURPHY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Havana, in the county of Sargent and State of North Dakota, have invented a new and useful Pen or Pencil Attachment, of which the .following is a specification.

This invention relates to a pen or pencil attachment, and has for its object to provide a simple and inexpensive and efficient device capable of attachment to a pen-shaft or pencil and adapted for use as a paper-cutter, envelop-opener, or eraser, the blade or cutting element of the attachment being adapted for folding or retraction, so as to be out of the way when not in use.

Further objects and advantages of this invention will appear in the following description, and the novel features thereof will be particularly pointed out in the appended claims, it being understood that various changes in the form, proportion,and the minor details of construction may be resorted to without departing from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of this invention.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a view of an attachment embodying the invention applied in the operative position to a pencil or penshaft. Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view in detail of a portion of the attachment to show the guide in which the blade is mounted. Fig. 3 is a detail view of the bladedetached. Fig. 4E is a plan View of the blank from which the sleeve and guide are struck.

Similar reference characters indicate corresponding parts in all the figures of the drawlngs.

The attachment comprises a sleeve or thim-' ble 1, of yielding material and of extensible construction, whereby it is adapted to be fitted upon pencils or pen-shafts of slightly differentdiameters and to exert a frictional pressure thereon, so as to prevent accidental displacement. This sieeve or thimble is struck from a flat sheet of material, preferably metal, to form a rectangular body portion a, an enlarged end portion b, and upper'and lower tongues 0, extending parallel with and adjacent to the side edges of the body portion. The body portion, which is of less width than the end portion, is crimped or folded upon itself on the dotted lines indicated in Fig. 4

to form the guide 2, (see Fig. 2,) said guide having a bottom or floor and upwardly and inwardly extending doubled or reinforced side walls or flanges 3, which are separated sufficiently at their in nermost portions to form a parallel-sided guide-slot 4, in which plays a stop-pin 5, carried by a thin blade 6. The tongues c are not crimped, but extend across the guide outside of the blade and respectively in the paths of movement in opposite directions of the stop-pin to limit the movements in opposite directions of the blade. When the stop-pin is in contact with the outer or upper tongue, the blade is extended, as shown in Fig. 1, to serve its function as a papercutter, .envelop -opener, or eraser, and when the stop-pin is in contact with the inner or lower tongue the blade is folded, with its extremity sufficiently sheathed to prevent injury to the hands of the user of the pencil or pen. The pin which plays in the guide-slot also serves as a means whereby the blade may be extended and retracted without necessitating the grasping of the blade.

The blade is inseparably associated with the sleeve or thimble, and therefore the artiole as an attachment may be placed on the market independently of the pencil or pen, and all that is necessary to apply it to the pencil or the pen-shaft is to spring the sleeve or ihimble, which is split for that purpose, over the end of the article in question in a manner similar to the split thimbles heretofore in use as holders for rubber erasers.

The reinforcement of the sleeve or thimble due to the double walls of the guide gives rigidity to the article and at the same time increases the resilience and the facility with which the article is adapted to embrace pencils and pen-shafts of varying diameters without affecting the relation between the walls of the guide and the blade which is mounted for sliding movement therein. The sleeve or thimble may be ornamented in any suitable or preferred manner to form an attractive attachment for a pencil or pen-shaft and may be oxidized, silver-plated, or otherwise finished.

Having described the invention, what is claimed is- 1. An attachment for a pencil or pen-shaft comprising a sleeve or thimble crimped at one side to form a longitudinal open-ended guide, and a blade mounted for sliding movement in said guide, the sleeve or thimble having terminal extensions forming tongues spanning the guide at its extremities and constituting stops to limit the movement of the blade.

2. An attachment for apencil or pen-shaft comprising a sheet-metal sleeve or thimble, crimped at one side to form a blade sheath and guide having outer and inner walls, and a blade mounted for sliding movement in the sheath and guide, and being of a length not exceeding the same to provide for completely housing the blade.

3. An attachment for a pencil or pen-shaft comprising a split sleeve or thimble struck from sheet metal and provided with a guide having side Walls formed by doubled portions of the blank, a blade mounted in said guide for sliding movement, and means for limiting the movement in opposite directions of the blade.

4. An attachment for a pencil or pen-shaft comprising a sleeve or thimble struck from a blank of sheet metal, doubled upon itself at an intermediate point to form a guide having reinforced side Walls extended inward to form an outer Wall and provided with tongues eX- tending across the extremities of the guide, and a blade mounted to slide in said guide and having a stop-pin in the path of which said tongues are disposed.

5. An attachment for a pencil or pen-shaft comprising a sleeve or thimble struck from a blank of sheet metal, said blank havinga body portion, a terminal end portion of greater width than the body portion, and tongues extending from the end portion parallel with and adjacent to the side edges of the body portion, the body portion between said tongues being crimped and doubled upon itself to form parallel longitudinal reinforced side Walls which extend toward each other to form a guide of which the outer wall is slotted,and a blade mounted to slide in said guide and having a pin operatingin said slot, with the tongues in the paths of the pin to limit the movements of the blade in opposite directions.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto aflixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM C. MURPHY.

WVitnesses:

J. T. THOMAS, WM. G. ZIMMERMAN. 

